Advertisement-shifter



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B. NICHOLS ADVERTISEMENT SHIPTER.

N0. 571,882. Patented Nov. 24, 1896;

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ADVERTISEMENT SHIFTBR. v H No. 571,882. Patented Nov'.24,1-896. j

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN NICHOLS, OF REVERE, MASSACHUSETTS.

ADVERTISEMENT-SHIFTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 571,882, dated November 24, 1896.

n a ion ned July 24,1896. Serial No. 600,332. (No model.)

1'0 all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN NICHOLS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Revere, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Advertisement-Shifter, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

In street-cars as now constructed it is usual to secure a line of advertising-cards to each interior side of the car a short distance above the windows. The object of this invention is the devising of means whereby double the number of such cards can be carried as is at present the case; also whereby each card can be seen by every passenger occupying the seats opposite, and, further, whereby the attention of the passengers shall be especially attracted to the advertisements. In accomplishing this I mount each advertising-card in a light frame movable horizontally in guides secured to the sides of the car. Of these guides there are two sets, one directly behind the other, and an automatic switch at each end for shifting the card-frames from one set of guides to the other. By means of small gears driven by some suitable source ofpower, as, for instance, the wheels of the car itself, and meshing with rack-bars on the card-frames, the latter are moved slowly along from one end of the car to the other, switched to the other set of guides, and propelled back to the starting-point, from whence they again glide athwart the vision of the passengers.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of the construction embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a top View of the same. Fig. 3 is a crosssection at X X in Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a full-size plan view showing the transferrence of a card-frame from one set of grooves to the other.

The advertising-cards A are represented as being held in the frames B B, while G is the guide-frame, having front set of grooves g and rear set g. The gears K are fixed on the shaft S and mesh with the rack-pins b at both top and bottom of the frame B. My arrangement for switching the frames from one guidegroove to the other consists of the levers L, against the arms Z of which the front ends of the card-frames impinge when each reaches the extremity of its travel; also the gears K,

which are driven entirely by the push of the card-frames, and by the levers M, which, through the medium of the levers L, connected to them by the rods m and aided by the gears K, press the rear ends of the frames 13 over to the other set of grooves. In doing this the lever-arms 'm engage the rack-pins b and give the frame a slight backward, in addition to the lateral, push and thereby retain the end rack-pin in engagement with the gears K until this frame is more than half-way over to the other grooves. At this point the gear is able to carry the frame the remainder of the short distance and to then start it on its return journey along the grooves. To insure the continued engagement of the rack-pins with the gears, Ioften make the arms Z of the levers L somewhat resilient and thereby cause them to give a continuous pressure of the frame B toward the gears.

In a simplified form of my invention I remove the levers L and M and depend wholly upon leaf-springs land M, the latter of which is shown in Fig. 2.

In case it is wished to have the advertisingcards bent over and downward, as is at present usually the case, I design to construct the frame ends B of metal bent to the curve required. The remainder of the frame will be formed of light but strong wood, with the exception, of course, of the rack-pins.

To enable my shifting devices to work equally well in a reverse direction, as will be necessary when the driving power is derived from the wheels of the frequen tly-reversed car, I have a duplicate set of levers llLconnected to the same rods m as shown in Fig. 2. These extra levers also aid in holding the frame up to the gears K when it has been moved over by the opposite levers to their limit of throw.

As a further addition to the attention-attracting capacity vof arrangement I add to an advertising-card a rotative disk a, put in motion by the contact of its friction-wheel a with the slender bar a Upon this disk would appear any such objects or characters as, showing at regular intervals through cutaway portions of the card, would attract thereto the attention of the passengers. Said ICO bar would, of course, terminate before the switching mechanism is reached. If desired,

the wheel a and the bar a can be provided with teeth, but ordinarily I consider friction sufficient.

In the drawings I show only the central part of my device and one end with portions of that somewhat broken away; but it is to be understood that both ends of my arrangement are precisely alike.

That I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. In an advertisement-shifter, the combination of two parallel sets of guides, advertisement-holding frames movable in said guides, means for imparting a forward motion to the frames in one of said guides and a rearward motion to those in the other, and means for automatically switching said frames from one set of guides to the other.

2. In an advertisement-shifter, the combination of the parallel guides, frames sliding therein and having rack-pins, driving-gears meshing with said rack-pins, and means for switching the frames from one guide to the other, for the purpose set forth.

3. The combination of the parallel guides, frames sliding therein and having rack-pins,

6. The combination with the grooves and card-frames sliding therein, of the rotative disk, a,wheel, a, and the bar, a substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing invention I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 15th day of June, in the year 1896.

BENJAMIN NICHOLS. [L. s.] lVitnesses:

A. B. UPHAM, WM. H. BAKER. 

